Is MonaVie Blackmailing Me?

I got an interesting email a yesterday from a person who says his name is DeeDee (yep he really chose the email address of [email protected]) that I’d like to share with all of you. It isn’t very much related to personal finance, but I know a lot of you are interested in my MonaVie saga. You don’t need to know the saga for the rest of this (but I think it is a riveting read, if I say so myself). If you are interested (you don’t need to read it for the rest of this) you can read a the full version of my MonaVie experience here.)

I’ve been watching the [Lazy Man’s MonaVie article] and [MonaVie Scam] blogs for some time and I’ve decided it’s time to do something about the grief you’ve caused for so many people by allowing corporately sponsored thugs like Vogel and Food Tech do their dirty work in the name of allegedly helping consumers.

Vogel and Food Tech have not advocated any particular corporation. They have advocated that people eat fruit rather than buy MonaVie, but that’s really no different than what Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Dean Edell, or Dr. Jonny Bowden say about MonaVie. An article that I posted recently has Dr. Joe Schwarcz warning acai health claims in general. Why this guy decided to single out my articles I don’t know. As readers will see this guy has done his research and since he can’t pin Vogel or Food Tech to any specific corporations his assertion falls flat on its face.

The truth is, and I’ve said it many times here before, MonaVie’s cost of $5000 (for a family of four) is prohibitive and all evidence shows MonaVie lacks nutrition. MonaVie, LLC has failed to address this issue in a public forum. So yes, Vogel, Food Tech, and myself are helping consumers… there’s not “allegedly” about it.

I feel both [Lazy Man’s MonaVie article] and [MonaVie Scam] are completely one sided and mostly half truths. If anyone tries to expand on anything that doesn’t suit your or their agenda then you simply sluff it off as off topic or not important to the point that your henchmen are making.

There are numerous comments on both [my MonaVie article] and [my MonaVie Scam website] where people have their say. With any open forum on a controversial topic there are people (i.e. trolls) who just add noise to the conversation in an effort to derail discussion. That’s why I moderate the posts. You don’t get to 7000 total comments by “sluffing it off.”

So here is what will transpire over the coming days.

The blackmailing begins…

You, [Lazy Man’s name] of [Lazy Man’s Location], will have multiple letters of complaint delivered by registered mail to everyone you associate with, including but not limited to your current and past employers as well as anyone with whom you are currently consulting, or have consulted with in the past. These letters will explain what your blogs are doing to hard working individuals, how they are devastating them financially, as well as how you’re taking money away from those less fortunate people in the slums of Brazil that are being affected by your actions and the actions of those you encourage to post on your blogs for your own personal gain.

This guy has done his homework, my hat is off to him. I think it would be humorous to see him waste money on registered letters of complaint to my past and current employers. As he mentions later on, he’s seen my LinkedIn page, but it hasn’t been updated in years… literally. My past employers could care less, I haven’t worked at any of them in years. My current employers (if he knew them) also would care less (and they are well-aware of my website). I’m pretty sure all people would enjoy that their former (or current) employee is protecting people with both my MonaVie article and my MonaVie Scam websites.

Again, these “hard working individuals…” are scamming people to buying overpriced juice… via illegal medical claims (see [my MonaVie Scam website] for extensive proof of that. Let’s talk about Emerald (very, very high ranking) MonaVie Distributor Mitch Biggs and his illegal claims about how MonaVie is organic and helps with swine flu.) These people are welcome to sell other products that actually provide value (yep, MonaVie lacks nutrition. I hear that Pampered Chef makes some quality products that aren’t priced 20x over what you’d find at competing stores.

As for being the cause of devastating them financially, this very, very large PDF, has MonaVie Black Diamond (one of the highest rankings attainable in the scam) Kelly Bangert saying, “I don’t blame the company [for all the people beneath her losing their homes and their cars] or anyone for that matter, the economy has hit us all hard!!!! (Page 31 of that PDF).” So while I’d love to take credit, it’s quite possible that people realized it’s not very wise to spend $5000 a year on juice. And they probably also figured out it isn’t worth spending another few thousand on tools and going to conferences to join a business that pays minimum wage (see MonaVie’s income disclosure statement) for 85% of the distributors who are fortunate enough to make a dime at all.

Then I’ll encourage the IRS takes a closer look at [Lazy Man’s] personal and business returns for the past few years, just to make sure that all of the revenue from clicks and affiliate programs associated with all of your blogs and other websites has been properly documented and accounted for. Also, I will send letters of complaint to any and every AD on any of your blogs stating that I as well as thousands of people will not purchase their products if they continue to advertise on your blogs and sites.

I’m going to take a stab that the IRS has a process in place where they “sluff off” (I have to start using that more often) people who encourage them to do more work without some kind of solid evidence. Maybe I should encourage the IRS to look into my neighbor’s taxes as he hasn’t returned my rake from last fall. The bagger at the grocery store gives me a funny look sometimes too, so I’ll tell the IRS to look into his taxes as well.

Most of the ads on my blogs are bought through Google AdSense, so you’d have to email tens of millions of people. It’s good you have “all the time in the world” (as you state later in this email)

Also, your business associate and good friend [Lazy Man’s friend] will have letters of complaint sent to the [the state of Lazy Man’s friend’s] Bar and probably to his partners at the firm just for good measure. After all, he is listed on some of your websites in the WHOIS, so it’s obvious he is your business partner. You can change all the info if you like, but I have copies of everything I need. I’ve been collecting data for more than 7 months now. It was nice how you changed all of the emails from [email protected] on all of those WP sites, but again, it was too late, I have Snag It screen grab video of every entry so I know they are all your sites which again, ties [Lazy Man’s friend] into them, his name, your email address.

Well my “business partner” (the person you mentioned) never really set up a website as you can see. Not that it matters, because he’s perfectly entitled to set up a website. I’m very sure that the Bar association would laugh at your letters as you have him in no wrong-doing. In fact, it would be great if you really did go after my lawyer friend… I think we’d have an class action lawsuit against MonaVie.

Everything that I’ve found ties nicely in with your Facebook pages, Twitter pages, the LinkedIn pages and on and on. Isn’t the Internet a cool tool? As far as I can see there are no issues sharing all of that information about you with anyone that may have an interest in it, and I bet there are a few people that do.

The Internet is cool! As I’ve said on my site in the past, I am not active on Facebook, Twitter… and my LinkedIn page is several years old. Of course you know this, so enjoy all that Internet goodness there.

So to stop the wheels from going into motion, and they will go into motion on August 25th at 12:00 noon PST, you simply have to do the following…

Take down the [MonaVie Scam] blog completely, and take down the [Lazy Man’s MonaVie articles] and anything relating to the snake oil pages on Lazy Man, that’s it. Pretty simple really.

The extreme blackmail continues. So he is asking me to hide the truth about MonaVie. Hmmm, that seems awfully suspicious. If MonaVie was really a quality product or quality company they’d openly debate the topics on my website. They can’t, so they want to blackmail me into hiding the truth.

You may reply if you wish but this is the last communication you’ll receive from me regarding this matter. This is not open to discussion and there are no other options. If you decide to post this on your blog then I will post unedited versions on multiple blogs [Lazy Man] of [Lazy Man’s Location], software engineer. I’ll also do press releases to make sure everyone knows [Lazy Man] of [Lazy Man’s Location] runs these and other blogs. I will make it my number one priority and believe me, I have all the time in the world.

Your threat of “This is not open to discussion and there are no other options” starts out great. Unfortunately it goes downhill quickly when you offer to pay for press releases to publicize both my MonaVie article and my MonaVie Scam websites.

So if this whole attack blog thing is worth it to you then by all means, carry on, but you’ve made this personal and I’ll handle it as such, and I will not stop sending letters to everyone listed, and also sharing your information which can be found online, until the [MonaVie Scam] and the specified [Lazy Man MonaVie] blog pages are down. This also extends to any new blogs, pages or sites you put up that do the same.

It’s pretty unusual that this anonymous person said that I’ve made it personal. How could I have made it personal with someone who won’t disclose their name?

This person doesn’t realize that I don’t really care much about my anonymity. I only did it because other personal finance bloggers did it. It was the cool thing to do in 2006. Plus, I think the “Who is Lazy Man?” mystery may be fun for some readers. You can read more about personal finance bloggers and anonymity here.

Have a nice day

You too!

“There is only the truth of the signal… You can’t stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere. ” – Mr. Universe, Serenity

Now that I’ve finished with his email, I’m going to make a counter proposal. This is not open to discussion and there are no other options. In fact, by the time he reads this, I’ve already sent the following letter to MonaVie’s legal team as well as chief blogger, Shante Schroeder. So it’s not actually a proposal as it’s done.

To the lawyers of MonaVie:

It is a shame that I have to write this letter to you. Unfortunately, your company has given me no choice.

As you know, you’ve previously harassed me with two empty legal threats (see: here and here). Your employees have harassed me further by calling me an annoying douche

On August 23rd, 2010, I got an email from someone associated with MonaVie, LLC attempting to blackmail me by revealing my name and location.

Clearly, MonaVie, LLC and those affiliated with it, pose a very real threat to my safety. As such, I’m seeking proper legal council to hold MonaVie, LLC liable for the transgressions mentioned above. As I’m sure you know from the recent Limewire litigation, your company can be legally held responsible for the actions of those affiliated with it acting on behalf of your company.

I am not going to wait until Glenn Siesser (or anyone else affiliated with MonaVie) or DeeDee ([email protected]) makes due on their threats. I strongly recommend that MonaVie, LLC spread word throughout it’s organization that it would be extremely bad for MonaVie, LLC if these threats continue.

It is very, very curious that MonaVie is some how scraping the web. I don’t know if they are paying people off with bags of money or people are finding their websites are getting hacked. Either way, it looks like someone is trying to cover-up free speech about MonaVie… and doing it anyway they can.

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